Discussion: The Hobbit – Book vs Movies

To kick off 2015 I decided to do something a bit different: a roundtable discussion!

There’s much to be said for Peter Jackson’s Hobbit movies, but how do major Tolkien fans feel about it? I was curious to find out, so I grabbed four people steeped in Hobbit lore and held a discussion full of delicious nerd rage. We talked about the changes made for the movies, the nature of Hollywood, and the difference between dragons and wyverns, among many other topics.

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Interesting views and great banter. I will say that I agree with the ones who say: I have no patience to start reading the Simaliriliion (or whatever) and love how the movies fill in blanks (even with some made up stuff) so that you get a feel for the continuity. E.g. in the books Gandalf just sort of disappears at times, like when they go in the forest. Here you can see the crazy stuff he has to do and why he’d make such a decision to leave this group he cares so much about. You also get to see and have a slightly better attachment to the big players, elf lords and wizards alike. All that said, I like some aspects of Tolkien, but his writing can sometimes be a bit dry for me (don’t kill me), so I like the movie adaptation, and think as far as those go, I really can see it possibly being SO much worse. To me, they hit the mark. There is room for improvement, like some hokey things they end up doing with some of the female character paths, but I mean, shit, look at the books… where are the strong female characters there?